


it was him.

by kindlingchild



Category: Persona 5
Genre: 11/20 Spoilers, Comfort, Fluff, IM BACK WITH SHUKITA HELLO Y’ALL, M/M, Post 11/20, post sixth palace spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 09:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13004889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindlingchild/pseuds/kindlingchild
Summary: Yusuke hated the prison guards. He hated the prison, and all the people that were in it. He hated that Akira had been tortured for trying to seek out justice, for trying to help.He hated that it was Akira that went through all that pain, and not him.





	it was him.

**Author's Note:**

> IM BACK YO 
> 
> im not really in hq anymore tho sorry y’all TT tho!! i will occasionally?? be writing hq fics, it’ll mainly be:
> 
> -persona 5 (shukita and pegoryu centric)  
> -fire emblem (fates, awakening and echoes centric// fe13,14,15 centric)  
> -south park (creek and bunny centric, maybe style??)  
> -rwby  
> -the adventure zone (taakitz and others!!)
> 
> soRRY FOR THE MAJOR DECREASE IN HQ CONTENT TT my writing is a lot better tho so :’)
> 
> HOPE Y’ALL ENJOY

The bruise on the left is from when he first entered the prison, Akira tells him.

It’s a dark purple one, slowly browning from the healing process, large and covering a quarter of the skin over his ribcage.

Callused fingers trace over the bruise, brush past his barely visible ribcage, to the other side of his chest.

There’s a long scar, a cut made from metal scraping against skin.

The same callused fingers ball into a fist, and Akira tells him that it’s okay, that the metal wasn’t rusty, that it’ll heal and fade (it won’t, but he can’t tell Yusuke that.)

Yusuke shifts to the other side of the bed, lifting up Akira’s shirt and examining his back, his shoulders.

Red spots are littered across his pale skin from the dozens of drugs they injected into him— the dozens of drugs the _police_ injected into a mere _teenager_.

Yusuke, not being able to look any longer, wraps his arms around Akira. Despite all his torture, he managed to stay warm.

It was Akira, after all. He could do anything, Yusuke was sure of it.

Akira laughs weakly, hanging onto Yusuke’s thin arms, craning his head and planting a gentle kiss atop the other boy’s head.

“I’ll be alright,” Akira whispers, leaning back into the artist, and Yusuke allows it. Black hair brushes up against Yusuke’s white button down, and Yusuke laces his fingers inbetween the raven locks that have graced his lap.

Yusuke asks him how he knew it would be alright, how he knew he would make it out alive. He couldn’t bear the thought; torture after torture just to be risking your life on one dangerous operation.

If something had gone wrong, if they had made a single mistake with the cognitive world, Yusuke thinks— then he doesn’t. It hurts too much.

It should’ve been him. It should have been Yusuke in his place.

He was broke, he was barely surviving off his schloarship from Kosei, he had next to no friends in school, his skills weren’t nescessary in the Phantom Thieves.

It should’ve been him.

Akira brings him out of his thoughts by shrugging lightly, blinking owlishy, long eyelashes fluttering beneath the sunlight that poured through the window of the attic. He smiles, and Yusuke melts.

“It was you,” Akira tells him, lifting a hand and cupping Yusuke’s cheek, “You guys would keep me safe.”

He was right. They would keep him safe.

To the other thieves, Akira was their leader. Their friend. Their light in the dark, when everything else went bad.

To Yusuke, Akira was his _everything_. His eyes were the night sky, his smile the sun, messy hair the vast universe that was perhaps beyond human comprehension.

Akira was a masterpiece.

“It should’ve been me,” Yusuke’s voice cracks as he speaks, and Akira just shakes his head, gingerly patting Yusuke on the cheek.

Akira tells him how he wouldn’t have been able to do all the things that Yusuke did, how he wouldn’t want to get Yusuke’s slate tainted with a criminal record, how he already had a criminal record.

How it all worked out in the end, how he was alright.

Yusuke still thinks it should’ve been him, but he doesn’t say anything. Akira was always right.

He was right whenever he chose to fight opponents, he was right whenever he spoke to others, he was right just by being _alive_.

Yusuke had no reason to deny any of Akira’s facts. They were right.

Akira’s staring at him now. He supposes he should say something.

“So were you?” Yusuke manages to say, throat dry, “Were you sitting alone all cocky in that room?”

Akira laughs, and Yusuke watches as his eyes shut and crinkle up, the corners of his lips upturned as his teeth shine in the light.

Beautiful.

Akira nods, a small grin spread across his face, like a dash of gold across a white background— striking, bold, and just right.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Akira whispers. They always whisper, and Yusuke can hear Akira’s whispers miles away.

Yusuke smiles in reply, leaning down and brushing his lips against the tip of Akira’s nose.

Is this what love was? Is this what all those artists, authors, tried to depict all the time?

The love in those stories, those paintings, were different. They seemed phantasmal, too sweet and artifical for Yusuke’s tastes. Hearts strewn across the sky, with all focus only on that one desired person.

It was all wrong.

Love, as Yusuke would have it, was calm. It wasn’t a large, chaotic mess of passion and heat. It was soft, quiet, peaceful.

Love was silent— no loud declarations of emotions. It was a silent agreement, it was a complete synchronization with the other, it was everything Yusuke had ever hoped.

It was _Akira_ , and Akira was all he needed.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> once again, thank you for reading!!
> 
> tumblr: umbraxstaff
> 
> feel free to drop me a dm anytime c:


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